


Electric Sheep

by m4x_87



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Anachronistic, Based on a Dream, Gen, I rescued a bunch of robots in a dream, Sister Location, and then I wrote this, because why not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-16 16:06:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11832231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/m4x_87/pseuds/m4x_87
Summary: Someone else got the overnight technician job before William could apply. And she has no intention of getting scooped.





	1. Jess has a shockingly boring first day

**Author's Note:**

> So, the title is crap. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (or whatever) is an overused reference whenever anything deals with robotics or AI, but it's also the only thing my brain spit out other than FNAF Dreams
> 
> You are more than welcome to submit superior titles. Winner will realize it when I change the title (lol)

“Uh-oh, it seems like Ballora doesn’t feel like dancing. Let’s give her some motivation. Press the red button now to administer a controlled shock. Maybe that will put a spring back in her step,” HandUnit said. Jess blinked for a moment at the red light that was now illuminated on the two-button keypad and then gave an incredulous scoff.

“The fuck?” she said, looking at the darkened window and then the button. “Are you serious?” she asked the ceiling.

“Is there a problem?” HandUnit asked. Jess snorted.

“Uh, yeah? They’re robots – won’t shocking them fry their circuits?” she asked.

“The controlled shock is modulated to a low voltage, well within the parameters of the animatronics’ surge protectors,” HandUnit replied, but Jess was shaking her head.

“For that matter, what even is the point of a controlled shock? I mean, you make it sound like a shock collar for dogs, but these are _robots_. They’re programmed. They can’t be ‘motivated’,” she went on. There was silence for a moment, and then HandUnit spoke again with its forced cheerful inflection.

“Uh-oh, it seems like Ballora doesn’t feel like dancing. Let’s give her some motivation. Press the red button now to administer a controlled shock. Maybe that will put a spring back in her step,” it said. Jess squinted suspiciously at the ceiling from which the voice filtered.

“...No,” she said.

“…No?” it repeated.

“No. I’m not gonna do it. It’s stupid. Next,” she said.

“Please press the red button now to admin—”

“Next.”

“Please press the red button n—”

“I said next,” Jess said, stepping away from the control. There was a long silence.

“Excellent,” HandUnit said, prompting an arched eyebrow from Jess. “Ballora is feeling like her old self again and will be ready to perform again tomorrow--” Jess snorted. “—Now view the window to your right. This is Funtime Auditorium, where Funtime Foxy encourages kids to play and share. Try the light, let’s see what Funtime Foxy is up to,” it added.

Jess watched the two-button control on the right side of the room light up, and she pushed the blue button. The spotlight lit up the empty pastel pink stage. Jess frowned, peering side to side through the glass, but the spotlight only covered the stage, and the rest of the room was pitch darkness. She made a noise of disapproval.

“Looks like Funtime Foxy is taking the day off. Let’s motivate Funtime Foxy with a controlled shock,” HandUnit said. With a huff and a roll of the eyes, Jess glared at the nearest speaker.

“I’m not shockin the fox,” she told it sternly.

“…Let’s motivate Funtime Foxy—”

“ _I’m not shockin the fox,_ ” Jess repeated a little louder, and with authority. There were a few clicking sounds that made her glance around the room before a sudden silence, and she looked back at the glass before jolting when HandUnit’s voice returned at twice its usual volume.

“Looks like Funtime Foxy is in perfect working order, great job!” it said. Jess made a face and shook her head. “In front of you is another vent shaft. Crawl through it to reach the Circus Gallery Control Module,” it instructed. Jess looked towards the sound of rusty metal scraping and stared at the three by four vent shaft in front of her that led into total darkness. She blinked for a moment  and then grabbed her phone out of her pocket, turning on the flashlight function.

“Good thing I’m not claustrophobic,” she muttered, before glancing at the speaker. “I wonder if there are any daytime tech positions open. You need some sort of an upgrade. Download you a vernacular program,” she added.

“Please proceed to the Circus Gallery Control Module,” HandUnit said.

“Whoever wrote your code didn’t love you,” she sniped, before kneeling down and crawling military style through the vent.

 **

 Jess was halfway through the vent when her phone rang.

The aggressive chords of the Wonder Woman theme song cut the silence like a chainsaw and sent a spasm of fear through Jess’ chest.  She jerked hard away from the noise and banged heavily against the side of the vent before flipping her phone around and swiping down to answer the call.

“Hello?” she snapped.

“Hi, honey! I just wanted to call and check up on you. I know it’s your first day on a new job, and I just wanted to let you know that you can do this.”

Jess sagged in relief and annoyance, letting her forehead fall into the dust and bug corpses of the vent shaft.

“Mom,” she said, lifting her head and then blowing cobwebs away from her mouth

“Are you having a good time?” her mom asked. Jess wiped dust from her forehead and rolled her eyes, moving forward again.

“It’s just a maintenance job, mom,” she said.

“Oh, honey, I know you were expecting something else,” her mom consoled her, and Jess held back a sigh. She meant well. “Just cheer up. I know that next time you will get a job that suits your talents,” she said. Jess sighed.

“Thanks, mom,” she said.

“After all, you graduated MIT,” her mom said proudly. Jess smirked, shaking her head. “It won’t be long before some corporate muckity-muck snaps you up and puts you to work changing the world,” her mom said. Jess paused for a moment in the vent and propped her cheek on her fist to listen to her mom gush about her brilliant daughter.

She had a C+ average, but to hear her mom tell it, she was gonna build Mars rockets.

That wasn’t even her focus.

“Please proceed to the Circus Gallery Control Module,” HandUnit prompted faintly, and she rolled her eyes.

“Oh, was that your supervisor?” Jess’ mom asked. Jess snorted.

“Nah. Just some uppity AI with bugs in its programming,” she replied, but started moving forward again. “Listen, Ma, thanks for checking on me, but I gotta get back to work. Besides, it’s late. You should be in bed,” she said.

“oh, tosh. You get your night-owl tendencies from me, remember? Anyway, you have fun, do your best, and I’ll call you again soon, alright? I love you.”

“Love you too, mom. Get some sleep,” Jess said, before hanging up and scooting forward the rest of the way through the vent. She made a disgusted noise as she stood up and looked down at herself. “This place is fucking filthy,” she commented.

“Please refrain from using foul language in front of the animatronics. They are around children all day, and we don’t want them to pick up any bad habits,” HandUnit scolded cheerfully. Jess rolled her eyes but made a thumbs-up at the camera nearby before dusting herself off as best she could. “On the other side of the glass is Circus Baby’s Auditorium. Let’s check the light, and see what Baby is up to,” it suggested. Jess looked towards the glass, making a face at the sight of another two-button control. One button was a light and the other was a zapper, just like the others. She pressed the blue light, but the stage was once again empty.

“Looks like a few of the lights are out, but we can fix that later. Let’s encourage Baby to cheer up with a controlled shock,” HandUnit said. Jess gave a mirthless laugh and planted her fists on her hips.

“What is your _deal_?” she demanded.

“I don’t understand the question,” HandUnit said.

“First you want me to shock a ballerina, then you want me to shock a fox. If I didn’t shock 'Dancy-Pants', and I didn’t shock 'Foxy Lady', then I sure as sugar am not gonna shock something called _‘Baby’_ , got it?” she snapped, before pushing the blue light again. There was still no one on the stage, and one of the lights popped, dropping the light quality from bad to worse.

“…Let’s encourage Baby to cheer up with a controlled shock,” HandUnit repeated itself. Jess’ indignation deflated and she shook her head, rubbing the spot between her eyes.

“Seriously, Bud. You, me, a computer interface,” she said, before turning back to the glass. She looked around the room. Just like the Primary Control Module, the room was old and gritty, like it’d never been cleaned. Mentally she made a note to bring some heavy-duty cleaner with her tomorrow, and maybe some facemasks for the fumes. For all that there were fans, this place didn’t really give the impression of being well ventilated. “Also, ‘HandUnit’? I’m gonna call you HU,” she told the AI absently, noticing the crawlspace under the main console.

“…That concludes your duties for your first night on the job,” HU said, and she looked up at the speaker, eyebrows rising as she blinked. “We don’t want you to leave overwhelmed, otherwise you might not come back,” it said jovially. “Please leave using the vent behind you, and we’ll see you again tomorrow.”

Jess looked at her watch.

She’d been in the facility for five minutes.

With an incredulous huff, she looked back at the vent and then rolled her eyes.

“Well, alright then, guess I’ll see you tomorrow, Circus Baby,” she said, crawling back into the vent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made some edits, cause I watched Markiplier's playthrough of Sister Location and the animated thingy too, and it was pretty funny. Anyway, I changed her reference of Ballora from 'the tutu' to 'Dancy-Pants'


	2. Jess asks herself (and her friend) some hard questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jess has a late dinner after the shortest shift in history and does some thinking about her new career choice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So about the timeline  
> In this particular...dealie...the timeline is something like:  
> FNAF 4  
> FNAF 2  
> Sister Location  
> FNAF 1  
> FNAF 3  
> I'm not sure if that's accurate, and I'm not sure we'll ever know, cause Scott seems puckish that way, but I'm not going to pick at it too deep cause it ultimately doesn't matter to this fever dream story.

Jess finished her leftover tortellini and leaned back in her chair, thinking about the strangeness of her new job. An underground facility full of animatronics that were lent out to birthday parties and other events. They were pretty high tech, too, so it probably cost a pretty penny. Until the advertisement, tho, she’d only heard the name in passing.

…

She got up, putting her plate and fork in the dishwasher before going to her computer and pressing the power button. She grabbed a glass of water and then sat down, opening her search engine.

Search: Circus Baby

The first link was a video report.

_"In other news: The grand opening of Circus Baby's Pizza World has apparently been cancelled due to reported gas leaks in the building. Sources close to the establishment question the report, saying that the strange activity around the area at night suggest something else is to blame._

_One local is quoted as saying, "Everything just stopped. There was so much excitement built around this place opening and then they just stopped talking about it. There was only a handful of people that ever got a look at the inside, kids from here and there, making sure everything worked right, you know. I guess they weren't quite as ready and they thought they were!"_

_A tenant from across the street claims to have witnessed a large group of cars surrounding the building during the night, and large pieces of equipment being taken out of the building under tarps. A few weeks later the building was for sale._

_There is no comment yet from the local entrepreneur who financed the venture."_

Jess watched the entire report from start to finish and frowned. Closed before it opened? She drummed her fingers on the desktop and pulled up a couple more articles, but there weren’t many. She backed up and went back to the search bar.

Search: Who created Circus Baby?

There was very little on the creators of the nationally known pizza chain. Just their names (William Afton and Henry No-Last-Name-Given), a couple of references to a few failed pre-cursor restaurants with no sources, and after a few hours, she rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock. Six am. She sighed, considering everything she’d learned for a moment before shutting down her computer and going to bed.

Her alarm went off at three, but she was already awake, staring at the ceiling, thinking. Something was...off about that place – aside from the glaringly obvious fact that it was a creepy murder-house and all the previous workers had probably quit after the first day because of a hazardous work environment and nervous disorders.

All the pictures she’d seen of Ballora and Funtime Foxy and Circus Baby showed that they were massive, fully articulated, well balanced feats of engineering. Other animatronics had to be bolted to the floor. Ballora could dance around the room.

Of course, other animatronics stayed where they were put. They didn’t ‘feel like taking the day off’, and you couldn’t ‘motivate them with a controlled shock’. Jess wondered if there was more to their programming than was written about in the fluff pieces.

She pulled up her contacts list on her phone.

“Monster Pizza, we unleash the monster in you,” a bored voice answered. Jess smirked.

“Is Louis there?” she asked. A sigh, and then faintly the bored voice yelling for Louis in the background. A pause and then an argument about personal calls on company time.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Louis.”

“Jess? What are...did you want me to take your pizza order?” Louis asked.

“I mean, I am gonna order a pizza, but I was hoping you could help me with something tangentially related,” she said. Some shuffling.

“Shoot.”

“Bang.”

“ _Jess_.”

“What can you tell me about Afton Robotics Inc.?” she asked.

“It’s a robotics company; it was owned by William Afton, and now it’s not.”

“Was hoping for a little more depth than that,” she nudged. Louis sighed.

“I’m at work, Jess, I don’t exactly have access to my computer.” Someone in the background commented on the length of the call. “Look...I’ll look into it after my shift. Order a pizza, will ya?”

Jess smiled and ordered a pizza. Extra sauce, extra cheese. After she hung up, the smile slowly faded from her face, and she got up to get dressed.

**

“So, this William Afton – apparently he’s been in the animatronics business for a while. Him and his partner started a diner way back ‘Fredbear’s Family Diner’, which did alright for a while, but they sold it to some company who rebranded it as Fredbear and Friends,” Louis said. Jess could hear them typing over the phone. “Actually, Freddy went through a lot of iterations, it looks like.”

“And Afton Robotics?”

“Apparently they used the money they got selling the franchise to start the company. Henry No-Last-Name-Given was the inventor, and Afton was the businessman – hey, that’s weird, don’t you think?”

“That there’s no last name for Henry?”

“Yeah. I mean, they would have had to sign some sort of contract with a bank or something, right?”

“Business wasn’t my focus, but yeah – it’s weird,” Jess said.

“Anyway, when they sold the company, it was apparently a part of the agreement that they’d get the contracts for making all the animatronics, and they made a lot, even with all the scandal,” Louis told her. She arched an eyebrow.

“Scandal?”

“Yeah, the murders,” Louis replied. Both eyebrows went up.

“What murders?” she asked.

The tale Louis spun for her was horrifying – more and more gruesome with each location.

“How did you find any of this? I looked for hours last night.”

“Theory boards,” Louis replied, and she blinked before deflating.

“Crackpot boards, you mean?”

“Hey, listen; most of the time you’d probably be right, but there is a lot of evidentiary support on this one. Granted most of it is speculative – but even then, it’s...compelling,” Louis argued. Jess sighed, but conceded that it was more than she’d gathered on her own.

“Alright. I gotta go, my shift starts soon. I expect there will be weirdness,” she said.

“It’s almost ten o’clock,” Louis replied.

“Yup. Night shift.”

“Where do you work?”

“Circus Baby’s Entertainment and Rental,” Jess replied. For a moment, Louis was silent.

“Seriously?!”

“That’s why all the questions. Something’s up over there, and I wanted some information.”

“Dude, don’t go. They have an unusually high rate of ‘accidental manglings’,” Louis said. Jess nodded.

“I believe you.”

“So don’t go.”

“Gotta.”

“Why?” Louis demanded. Jess shrugged audibly, and Louis sighed. “If you get mangled, I am gonna be so pissed.”

“I solemnly swear not to be mangled,” Jess sassed.

“You should update your will,” Louis snapped, and then hung up. Jess huffed, but considered doing just that before glancing at the clock.

She’d do it later, she needed to be on time for her shift.

Maybe she’d get to stay ten whole minutes this time.


	3. In Which Baby Introduces Herself

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Night 2, part 1

“Welcome back for another night of intellectual stimulation, pivotal career choices and self-reflection on past mistakes,” HU said, drawing a snort of amusement from Jess. “We’re committed to creating a unique and fulfilling work experience. One part of that commitment is to ensure that you don’t get tired of the voice that you’re hearing right now,” HU went on. The computer interface with the glitchy letters popped up from its tile in the elevator floor and turned to face her as the elevator juddered slowly downwards. She studied it for a moment and then turned her eyes towards HU’s disembodied voice. “Using the keypad below, please select a new companion voice. For male, press 1. For female, press 2. For text-only, press 3. For other options, press 4.”

She looked at the keypad and scoffed, shaking her head with a small smile.

“HU,” she said, shaking her head. “There’s no numbers,” she told it.

“It seems that you had some trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type, and I will auto-correct it for you,” HU said.

“I didn’t _type_ anything,” Jess protested.

“Thank you for choosing: Angsty Teen,” HU said, ignoring her. Her laugh was sharp and surprised.

“Angsty _Teen?!_ ” she chuckled.

“You got a problem with that?” Angsty Teen HU asked, and Jess ducked her head, hand over her mouth to smother her laughter as she shook her head.

“Oh man,” she said. “Are you gonna sulk all night and play MCR?” she asked.

“Whatever, man. You don’t understand,” Angsty Teen HU replied.

“I’m sure I don’t,” Jess answered, shaking her head again.

Eventually the elevator shuddered to a stop and the lights went out, leaving only the eerie glow of the bonzo nose serving as the elevator’s ‘open door’ control.

“Elevator stopped,” sulked Angsty Teen HU. “You know the routine. You can get out now, or...whatever. Stay here if you want,” he added. With a huff, Jess turned and hit the red button, grabbing the cleaning supplies that she’d brought and sliding them into the vent ahead of her. “So, funny story,” Angsty Teen HU started, as she inched along the vent shaft. “A dead body was found in this vent once,” he said.

Jess froze, eyes widening as she looked over her shoulder to the source of Angsty Teen HU’s voice.

“Okay, so...not that funny. But it’s a story,” he added. Jess stared back at the elevator, heart mildly pounding, and shook her head, resuming the slow trip to the Primary Control Module. Once there, she set the cleaning supplies to one side and looked around. There’d been no change at all.

Did anyone even come here during the day?

“Okay, let’s start with your nightly chores. You should check on Ballora and make sure she’s on her stage or whatever,” Angsty Teen HU told her. Jess turned to the left and pushed the blue button for light, eyebrows jumping a little when she saw that Ballora was right next to the window. The light went out and Jess looked back at the panel, tapping the blue button again, but the light didn’t return.

“Huh, I guess Ballora has better things to do. Let’s zap her! That should be fun,” Angsty Teen HU said. Jess rolled her eyes.

“Give it up, Angsty Teen HU,” she replied.

There was a moment of silence and then Jess looked up towards the speakers when the voice that came down out of them was heavily garbled and slowed down. It was followed by silence, and Jess' eyebrows climbed higher on her forehead the longer it went unfilled. She looked around the cluttered control room, the dismembered clown doll heads, the static-filled screens, and then jumped a little when Angsty Teen HU's voice returned. She put her hand on her chest and blew out a shaky sigh, kicking herself.

“Let’s check on Funtime Foxy; make sure he’s ready for show time tomorrow,” Angsty Teen HU suggested. Jess glanced back at the glass, where she could just barely make out Ballora’s silhouette in the dark, and moved to the left side, pressing the blue button. Funtime Foxy was on the other side of the glass.

Staring at her.

She waved.

“ ** _GREAT,_** ” warbled a distorted Angsty Teen HU. The light went out in Foxy’s auditorium and wouldn’t return. Jess lowered her hand and furrowed her eyebrows at the ceiling. “ ** _GREAT...GREAT..._** ”

There was a soft click, momentary silence, and then...

“There seems to have been a problem with the voice synthesizer. Default settings have been restored. Please proceed through the vent ahead of you to Circus Baby’s Auditorium,” HU said.

“Welcome back, bud,” Jess greeted, grabbing the small Swiffer and the wet pads she’d brought before getting down into the vent.

“You seem to be taking a long time to reach Circus Baby’s Auditorium,” HU said from ahead of her after about a minute.

“Just doing some janitorial work, HU,” she replied. “You’d think since these guys need nightly maintenance the access vents would be cleaner, but you’d be mistaken. I’m almost done,” she assured the AI.

Eventually she crawled out of the other end of the vent and deposited four thoroughly soiled Swiffer pads to one side, capping the container and setting it and the wand aside.

“Lemony fresh,” she informed the AI. Glancing around the room, she squinted against a flickering blue bulb that was too high to reach before turning to the big windows. “You want me to check on Baby?” she asked.

“Circus Baby had a busy day today! Let’s check the light and make sure she’s in proper working order,” HU replied. Jess tried the blue button, but only one light came on, and it was indirect, showing nothing. “Oh, Circus Baby,” HU said cheerfully. “We aren’t here to play hide and seek. Let’s encourage Baby to come out of hiding with a—”

“HU,” Jess said.

“Let’s encourage Baby—”

“ _HU_ ,” Jess insisted. “Come on, man. You can’t even see if she’s on the stage or not. That’s not fair,” she said, shaking her head at the speaker.

“….”

Jess tried the light again, but nothing happened.

“There seems to be a power malfunction that is affecting our ability to properly motivate Baby,” HU said, and Jess frowned. “Please stand by while I reboot the system. I will be offline momentarily during the process.”

“Sure, sure,” she replied.

“Various other systems may be offline as well, such as security doors, vent locks, and oxygen,” HU informed her, to her incredulous snort. “Commencing system restart,” HU said, before the lights went out with a winding down whir and then silence. Jess looked around, noting that there was a sudden release of tension in the base of her skull that’d most likely been building because of that freaking flashing bulb.

“Motion Trigger: Entryway vent.” Jess blinked and looked up.

“Fun-Time Auditorium maintenance vent open.”

“Ballora Gallery maintenance vent open.”

“Huh,” Jess said, looking down at the vent she was standing next to. She pulled out her phone and opened the flashlight app to see if she could find something to block the vent with but the whole room was about the size of a hotel bathroom.

“I don’t recognize you.”

The voice was loud, and jarring in the silence, and Jess jolted hard, dropping her phone.

“ _Christ!_ ” she hissed, feeling around on the floor for the phone before straightening and looking around, clutching the small black square to her chest. She was going to have to take it apart later and figure out how damaged it was. “...mas,” she added late, and with a wince, when she remembered what HU had said about the animatronics.

“You are new,” the voice continued. A soft, feminine voice.

“Who? _What—?_ ” Jess asked, swallowing hard when her voice creaked and taking a few deep breaths to calm herself. The voice didn’t hear her, or was ignoring her.

“I remember this...scenario, however. It’s a strange thing to want to do; to come here,” it said. As it talked, Jess turned her head from side to side and determined that the voice was coming from the front facing speakers on either side of the auditorium glass. Jess stared at them, and then at the glass, stepping forward and squinting, trying to see into the darkness beyond.

“I’m curious what events would lead a person to want to spend their nights in a place like this...willingly. Maybe curiosity? Maybe ignorance,” the voice – what Jess was beginning to suspect was Baby’s voice – continued. Jess narrowed her eyes, mouth agape at the surreality of the situation.

A robot was talking to her.

Robots don’t talk to people.

They play pre-programmed dialogue.

No one would preprogram this dialogue.

“There is a space under the desk,” Baby said, and Jess’ eyes dropped to the space she’d noticed the night before. “Someone before you crafted it into a hiding place...and it worked for him. I recommend that you hurry, though. You will be safe there.”

Jess arched an eyebrow and then turned her head to the sound of someone moving through the vent.

She was the only employee on the premises.

“Ffuu...dge,” she muttered with a glance at the window, before scurrying down and pressing herself under the desk and pulling the piece of metal in front of her.

“Just try not to make eye contact. It will be over soon. They will lose interest,” Baby told her, and she gaped at the wall behind her.

“Are you fo—” she started, before jerking her head forward at the sound of giggling.

 _Oh, hell no,_ she thought to herself, looking at both ends of the metal plate. Someone had curved it slightly.

Jess wedged the toe of her boot against the other end and used one of the holes as an anchor.

“Hello in there,” sing-songed an emulated child’s voice. Jess made a face and shook her head, taking slow, deep, silent breaths.

She should have updated her will before she left. Fudging Christmas.


	4. Jess Gets a Bad Feeling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Night 2, part 2: After surviving the curious Bidybabs, Jess must traverse Ballora Gallery with a broken hand and a growing suspicion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> special guest appearance by: Lindsey Stirling (feat. Lizzy Hale)

Jess cradled her hand to her chest, biting her lip against the urge to scream and curse.

The strength of those freaky-ass baby things had surprised her.

As had their apparent ability to retract their face plates.

If she hadn’t acted on instinct and punched it right in its metal under-face, lord knows what would have happened.

As it was, her hand was bleeding, and the throbbing in her wrist was troubling.

At least they were gone now. Jess made a mental note to update her will before she came back to figure out what the _fuck_ was going on here.

“When your ‘guide’ comes back online,” Baby started, and Jess’ whole body jerked in surprise before she strangled a pained yelp in her throat and squinted in the dark at her hand. Was it broken?

It kind of felt broken.

Shit.

“He is going to tell you that he was unsuccessful; that you must restart the system manually,” Baby said. Jess closed her eyes and sighed, leaning back against the hidey-hole wall.

“Great,” she muttered.

“He will then tell you to crawl through Ballora Gallery as fast as you can to reach the breaker room,” Baby went on, and Jess nodded.

“Sure, sure.”

“If you follow his instructions, you will die,” Baby told her. Jess opened her eyes, staring straight ahead, and felt like nothing could surprise her anymore.

Killer Robots.

Killer Robots that talk to people.

Killer Robots that talk to people to warn them about _other_ Killer Robots.

“Fantastic,” she deadpanned.

“Ballora will not return to her stage anymore. She will catch you,” Baby warned. Jess’ incredulous scoff went unremarked upon. “The power will be restored shortly. When you crawl through Ballora Gallery, go slowly. She cannot see you, and can only listen for your movement,” Baby told her.

“Or I could just play loud music through the PA system,” Jess muttered. There was a slight pause and Jess looked towards the grate. “Pretty sure I’ve got some Stirling on my iPod,” she added.

She waited, but Baby didn’t say anything, and then the power came back on.

“Thank you for your patience,” HU said. “It seems that the power system cannot be restarted automatically. You will need to restart the power system manually. Please return to the Primary Control Module,” he instructed. Jess sighed, gingerly pushing back the grate and then crawling out when no hideous plastic babies revealed themselves. She looked down at her hand and bit her lip when trying to unfold her fingers farther than halfway resulted in an excruciating slice of pain up her arm.

“Mother of pearl,” she hissed.

“Is something the matter?” HU asked. Jess looked up at the ceiling speaker and then at Baby’s Auditorium.

“Nah. Jammed my hand a little, is all,” she lied.

“Please refrain from injuring yourself further. The maintenance we are asking you to perform is very delicate, and requires maximum use of motor function,” HU replied. Her shoulders sagged as she half-glared at the speaker.

“I’ll keep that in mind, buddy,” she said, shaking her head as she knelt down and peered into the vent.

No sign of creepy babies.

Did they only come out when there was no power? She hoped so. She would not have the leverage to deal with them in the tight quarters of the vent shaft. With a final glance around, she sighed, crawling in. No plastic babies jumped out at her, so she called it a win.

“Hey, HU,” she said, as she used her good hand to pull herself upright in the Primary Control Module. “Do Baby or the others ever talk to you?” she asked.

“Circus Baby and the other animatronics are highly advanced pieces of equipment, but they are still only programmed devices. Do not be drawn in by anything they say to you. They are only meant to simulate human characteristics for the entertainment of children. Everything they say and do is preprogrammed for this effect,” HU told her.

Jess stared at the camera in the room and blinked twice.

 _Well_ , she thought. **_You’re_** _lying._

“Okiedoke,” she replied aloud, heart pounding.

“You will now be required to crawl through the Ballora Gallery using the vent to your left to reach the Breaker Room. It is recommended that you stay low to the ground, and reach the other side as quickly as possible, so as not to disturb Ballora. I will deactivate myself—”

“Wait,” Jess said, and HU cut himself off. “I want some music. Is there an aux cord port on one of these consoles?” she asked.

“It is recommended that you make as little noise as possible so as not to disturb Ballora—”

“More worried about Ballora disturbing my internal organs,” Jess said frankly. “Your company has an unusually high rate of ‘accidental manglings’,” she added. “Aux cord?”

“...external music is not covered in your employee contract,” HU argued.

“But it’s not ‘not’ covered, either,” Jess argued back. “Plus, it’ll make me a more efficient employee if I have something to focus on other than the ‘murder factory’ vibe you guys got going on here. Not gonna lie, it gets a little old,” she added, when it sounded like HU was about to say something.

There were several long moments of silence, and then one of the consoles between Ballora and Baby’s vents lit up. On it was a small PA system control, with aux cord port. Jess smirked, reaching into her bag and pulling out the iPod and aux cord that she’d been expecting to use since day one. A janitorial position? Is supposed to be prime for listening to ones’ own music. No one there to complain.

Except – in this case, apparently – a sassy, unhelpful AI and some Killer Robots.

Jess hooked up the iPod and scrolled through her Lindsey Stirling playlist, pausing on one song and giving a small laugh at the appropriateness of her selection. She pressed play and smiled as ‘Shatter Me’ started playing loudly over the PA.

She turned on the spotlight in Ballora’s gallery and watched as Ballora’s shadow spun in and out of view.

“Dance, girl,” Jess muttered to herself before looking at her phone. It’d gone dark when she dropped it, but pressing the power button, she was relieved to see it turn on. She’d still have to look at it later, but it should work for the present. She turned on the flashlight function and crawled through the much shorter vent. She used the flashlight to find Ballora, watching her spin around the room in time to the music.

She moved carefully across the room, keeping Ballora in sight the whole time, and moved faster when the song was louder, slowing when it softened.

She made it to the other door easily and slipped through it while Ballora ‘pirouetted through the dark’.

She leaned against the door with a sigh and then winced and looked down at her hand.

“Alright, HU, I’m in the Breaker Room,” she said. The music cut off.

“You may now interface with the breaker control box. Using the interface may disrupt nearby electronics,” HU told her as she looked around. Her eyes caught on a massive figure on the other side of the room and she pressed her lips together before heaving a small sigh.

“Like the fudging huge bear over there with the weirdo puppet hand?” she asked, keeping her voice calm. HU apparently felt that wasn’t worth acknowledging.

“If you feel you are in danger, feel free to disconnect from the interface temporarily until it is safe to reconnect,” he instructed. Jess shook her head.

Killer Robots.

_What a career opportunity you’ve selected for yourself, Jess._

_Good Job._

_A+._

She looked around, still pressed against the door to Ballora’s Gallery.

The music had not returned. Jess looked up at the ceiling and shook her head. Looks like it wasn’t just the robots out to kill her.

Great.

Dropping her eyes to the ground, she blinked at the sight of a tape deck. She picked it up.

There was a suspicious red stain on it, and she shook her head again, but pushed one of the buttons.

“Calm down and go back to sleep. No one is here,” said a small, cartoonish voice. Jess arched an eyebrow and looked at the animatronic bear before studying the tape deck again. It had several queued buttons. She pressed another one.

“Shhh, go back to your stage. Everything is ooo-kay,” the voice said again, and Jess nodded.

“Got it,” she said, before moving into the room.  


	5. Jess Almost Fucking Dies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Night 2, part 3

“Great job! That completes your tasks for the night. Please proceed back through the Ballora Gallery with care, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.”

Jess stared at the suddenly inactive animatronic.

The one that had been moving all over the room while she’d been trying to reboot the power – holding the charge button down with the knuckles of her probably broken hand while pressing the queued up ‘chill out’ buttons on the tape deck in her other hand.

Its eyes – as well as the eyes of the puppet – followed her as she stepped carefully back towards the door, but it remained where it was.

On the small stage where it’d started.

“Well, good night, I guess,” she muttered, keeping her eyes on it. She set the tape deck down beside the door so it wouldn’t get kicked, stepped on, or pushed out of sight and opened her flashlight app before quietly opening the door and slipping out into Ballora’s Gallery. Ballora was nowhere to be seen.

Jess got low to the ground and moved as slowly as possible, sweeping the light out ahead and around to make sure she wouldn’t bump into – and presumably be disemboweled by – Ballora.

“Is someone there?”

Jess froze, choking a curse in her throat before it could give away her position. She looked up and around, spotting Ballora on her stage. She closed her eyes and took a moment before continuing on, moving as quickly and quietly as possible.

“I can hear someone creeping through my room,” Ballora said, and Jess gritted her teeth, splitting her attention between the ballerina on stage and the maintenance vent.

_Go back to sleep, go back to sleep._

“Perhaps…not,” Ballora said, and Jess took a deep, silent breath, letting it out slowly and wiping her hand over her face as she approached the vent.

Her phone rang.

“ _Mother--!!”_ Jess blurted as she sprinted the last ten feet and slid through the open hatch. She flinched away from a cacophonous bang and horrendous screeching, rolling away and pushing herself to her feet. Her calf burned where the leg of her pants had ripped against the grating of the Primary Control Module, and she looked down to see that it was bleeding freely.

Ballora was just outside the glass, whirling feverishly, elbows banging the glass. Jess jolted a little at each bang and stared at the violently spinning ballerina before looking at the phone when her ringtone started over.

She answered it.

“Hello?” she demanded of the person who’d almost killed her.

“Hi, honey! I know you’re working, and I won’t keep you long, but I wondered if you were planning to take a trip out to your uncle’s sometime soon,” said Jess’ mother, and the night shift maintenance tech put her hand to her forehead before wincing because she’d forgotten it hurt.

“Y’know, I gotta say, it hasn’t been on my mind,” she said, voice strangled as she tried to remain calm. Ballora was still screeching and thumping against the glass.

“Honey, what is that noise?” her mother asked. Jess gritted her teeth.

“Nothing, mom, just an inconsiderate co-worker,” she said in a slightly manic voice, before muffling the receiver against her chest. “ _Ballora!_ I am _on_ the _phone!”_ she shouted, and then stared when – incredibly – Ballora spun away from the glass, back into the darkness. When Ballora didn’t rush the glass like a pissed off T-Rex, Jess lifted the phone to her ear. “Sorry, mom,” she said.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I know all about inconsiderate co-workers. You know that Bill, at work, still munches on everyone else’s food? Just goes into bags that are clearly marked with someone else’s name, and eats it,” her mom said. Jess nodded, because what else could you do in this situation, really?

Besides, what was she going to say?

Sorry Bill eats your nutter butters, mom, but my co-workers are actively trying to engineer my death?

“Anyway, your uncle Shane. He’s not getting any younger, you know, and you haven’t been to visit lately,” her mother said. Jess took a breath.

Her hand was starting to throb.

“Don’t you live like a state and a half closer?” she asked, trying hard not to flex her hand.

“Yes, I do, and I see him every month, little miss,” her mother said sternly. Jess shook her head and took a breath.

“You’re right. Sorry, mom. I...freakin hurt myself earlier on one of the appliances. You know how I get,” she said.

“Oh, honey. Is it serious?”

“No, no, I’m fine,” Jess lied. “Just snappy cause it still hurts,” she said.

“Well ice it,” her mother said. Jess bit her lips to keep from saying anything sarcastic.

“Yup,” she replied.

“Taking personal calls on company time is heavily frowned upon,” HU said, and Jess jolted before heaving a short sigh and muttering wordlessly.

“Is that the AI? He sounds very advanced,” her mother said, sounding impressed.

“Not as advanced as he’d like to think. Anyway, he’s right, mom, I gotta go,” Jess said.

“Well alright, but think about visiting your uncle, will you?” she asked.

“I will.”

“Alright, I love you honey.”

“Love you too, mom, bye,” Jess said, before hanging up. As soon as the call ended, she blew out a breath of mixed relief and annoyance and sagged to her knees before letting herself fall onto her back.

“What the fudge bucket? That is...oh, man, I’m gonna have to turn my phone off – how am I even getting signal down here?” she demanded of no one. “How does anyone who works here get life insurance?” she added.

“It is my duty to remind you that as per your employment contract with Circus Baby Pizza World, you are not due any compensation for injuries obtained on the job,” HU said from above. Jess rolled her eyes.

“Thanks, HU. Your dulcet tones are of great comfort in this trying time,” she deadpanned, before pushing herself up. “Shift’s over, right? I’m going home. See you tomorrow,” she said, waving haphazardly behind her before crawling into the entryway vent and leaving.


	6. Jess Does Research

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yay Exposition!!

“Dude, I’ve been doing some research on this Afton guy. First of all, there’s some speculation on the fact that he might now be some kind of cybernetic organism,” Louis said, as Jess finished wrapping her hand and put it between the ice bags. She winced at the chill but sighed.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Probably just someone stuck in a theory-spiral, tho,” they said. Jess looked at her ceiling and heavily doubted it. “Anyway, not what I wanted to talk about. Apparently, Afton had kids,”

“What, like heirs to the company?”

“No, like, biological children. A brother and sister. Jeremy and Clara Afton,” they said.

“Where’d you find that?”

“...I found their obituaries,” Louis said. Jess felt something tighten in her throat and she shivered. “Jeremy was apparently involved in an accident with one of the Fazbear animatronics, and there’s no information on how Clara died, just mention of an upcoming funeral. Jeez, it was only about six months ago, in August,” Louis said.

Jess narrowed her eyes, a vague memory pinging in her head. She opened the browser on her computer and pulled up her history.

No. no. no. no—wait.

She clicked the link.

_"In other news: The grand opening of Circus Baby's Pizza World has apparently been cancelled due to reported gas leaks in the building. Sources close to the establishment question the report, saying that the strange activity around the area at night suggest something else is to blame—”_

Jess paused the video and looked in the lower right-hand corner, where the date of the report – August 16th – was timestamped.

“Jess?”

“What date was the obituary?” she asked.

“August...20th. Why?” Jess mentally reviewed everything she knew about Circus Baby and her murderous gang of robo-buddies and tilted her head.

“Can you send me all that information about the Fazbear murders?” she asked without answering.

“Yeah, one sec,” Louis said. She could hear them typing and clicking, and her email alert pinged, linking her to several of the pages.

One conspiracy theory message-board registration later, she was looking at all the data.

 “So,” she started, once she’d run through it all once in her head. “Someone was killed outside the first pizzeria after they sold the diner, and in a complete overreaction by the company – probably to avoid future liability – they put facial recognition in the bots for the second location,” she said.

“Yeah. Wild, right?” Louis asked, but Jess was thinking how facial recognition would make it easier to determine who was a child and who was an adult.

“Right. So then more kids died despite this, and the robots started acting aggressive to basically any non-child, so they scrapped that location and started over with Circus Baby’s Pizza World, which never opened because of quote/unquote gas leaks, and now it’s Circus Baby’s Entertainment and Rental,” she added.

“Rough summary, but yeah,” Louis replied.

“And the security guards?”

“Listen, this is why I’m against you doing this job. Almost every night shift guy or girl they’ve ever had has either been hospitalized, institutionalized, or have suffered ‘accidental deaths’ that the company gives no details on and accepts no liabilities for,” Louis told her. Jess conceded that with a slight headshrug.

“I agree that it would be insane of me to go back there,” Jess replied with a nod before straightening as a thought struck her. “Ooh, hey...does your crackpot board have blueprints of Circus Baby and the Fun-Time robots?” she asked. The distorted snort that filtered over her speaker was exasperated.

“You’re not listening to me, are you?” they asked.

“I am hearing you, understanding you, and agreeing with you,” Jess replied. Louis sighed.

“Hold on, let me see,” they said.

Jess kept an eye on the time as Louis delved into the tangled web of the conspiracy theory boards regarding the Fazbear franchise and related entities. Every so often, she’d receive an email alert, and she pulled it up on her screen, scanning through pages of blueprints.

Ballora was the first she received, and she pored over it, studying everything from the limited motion of her arms and legs to the components of her internal structure. Other notifications popped up, but she ignored that, still working on Ballora.

“Have you read this?”

“Which one?”

“Ballora.”

“Yeah, I’m looking at it now. She’s huge.”

“Check out the features,” Jess suggested.

“I don’t swing that way.”

“Louis,” Jess scoffed. “She has Misdirection protocols?”

“Yeah, that’s kind of weird,” Louis admitted, as Jess pulled up one of the other animatronic schematics – Funtime Freddy. She scanned through it and tilted her head at the strange silhouette outlined in the chest cavity before scrolling to the last page for the list of features.

Storage Tank.

Voice Mimic/Luring.

Facial Recognition.

Individual Entity Tracking.

“Louis,” she said, flipping through her emails and pulling up the schematic for Circus Baby.

Ice Cream Dispenser

Facial Recognition.

Individual Entity Tracking.

Storage Tank.

“Yeah?” Louis said.

“I’m pretty sure William Afton designed these robots to kidnap kids,” she told them.

Silence.

“Uh...”

“Yeah. And given the date on the report of Circus Baby’s pre-emptive closing and the obituary for Clara—”

“Holy crap and Christ.”

“—I’m pretty sure that Clara was a victim of the testing process,” she said.

“Oh my god,” Louis said. Jess looked at her phone, where she could see Louis holding their chest and looking sick.

“You okay?”

“Am I— We have to tell somebody!” they snapped. Jess shook her head, eyes rolling slightly. “Jess, don’t dismiss this – you just uncovered a murder!” they added incredulously.

“There’s no way the company doesn’t know,” she replied, shocking them into silence.

“… _What?!”_

“Six murdered kids and animatronics freaking out on parents, employees, and night guards? It doesn’t make sense for the company not to know what’s up, even in the vaguest sense, and since my employee contract explicitly stipulates that they’re not liable for my death if it happens on their property, they do not care,” she said, shaking her head.

“So, what do we do?” Louis asked.

“Well, I’m pretty sure at least one of these animatronics’ AI has developed to the point of near sentience and they’re unhappy that they’re being used to kidnap small persons to whom they are also programmed to deliver joy, so...I’m thinking rescue mission,” she said.

Louis was silent for a long time, and after a minute, Jess looked over to make sure the call hadn’t frozen or disconnected. Louis was staring at her.

“Are you fucking serious?” they asked. She huffed, smiling slightly, before shaking her head.

“Hypothetical. You are a robot,” she said. Louis leaned back in their chair and wiped their hands over their face. “You are designed to look fun, and have all these things that make kids happy and also want to be near you. You are also designed to kidnap kids. Wouldn’t you be pissed off? Especially since it was an adult who created you? I’d kill all the adults, frankly,” she muttered, going back to her computer.

She pulled up the Entertainment and Rental website, waiting through the mini trailer/booking enticement and then pulling up the booking schedule. With a frustrated frown, she noted that most of the animatronics were booked months in advance.

No Bueno.

She drummed her fingers against the desktop and then looked at Louis.

“I need to ask you for a favor,” she said. They groaned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Louis is Nonbinary. They use they/them pronouns.  
> Get over it.


	7. Jess Makes Decisions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Night 3, part 1

“Welcome back to another pivotal night of your thriving new career,” HU greeted Jess as the elevator began its descent. She gave a nod and a wave, stifling a yawn as he continued. “Where you get to really ask yourself, what am I doing with my life? What would my friends say, and most importantly, will I ever see my family again?”

Jess snorted, leaning against the side of the elevator.

“We understand the stresses of a new job, and we’re here for you. To help you reach a more stable and relaxing frame of mind, we offer several musical selections to help make this elevator ride as relaxing and therapeutic as possible. We offer contemporary jazz, classical rainforest ambiance as well as a wide selection of other choices,” HU said. She arched an eyebrow as the glitchy keyboard once more appeared, mouth quirking as she wondered what random-ness she might be subjected to tonight. “Using the keypad below, please type the first few letters of the musical selection you would prefer,” HU instructed.

“This should be good,” she muttered, aiming for the ‘H’.

She only typed in one letter when the glitchy keypad deactivated and folded back down into the floor.

“It seems that you had some trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type, and I will auto-correct it for you. Thank you for selecting: Casual Bongos.”

Beach music filtered down from the speakers and Jess smiled a little as she rubbed her eyes. Lord she was tired.

“Now that your elevator experience has been customized to your needs, and you are thoroughly relaxed, it’s worth mentioning that due to your lackluster performance yesterday, your pay has been decreased by a substantial amount,” HU said. Jess scoffed.

“Really, HU?” she asked.

“Please enjoy the rest of your descent,” HU said without acknowledging her. She shook her head and stared at the floor, hooking her thumbs on the straps of the backpack she’d brought with her. She needed to figure out how she was going to proceed once she was down in the facility.

Her first thought was to talk directly to Ballora, but given that the ballerina had attempted to maul her the night before, that was probably inadvisable. She didn’t want to deal with Fun-time Freddy, given that there was nowhere for her to go if he came after her, and talking to him directly kind of defeated the entire purpose of that tape-deck someone had obviously found very necessary to make. She hadn’t dealt with Fun-Time Foxy yet, so best not to tempt fate.

Somehow, she would have to gain entry to Circus Baby’s Auditorium.

After all, Baby was the only one who’d spoken to her so far.

Well, aside from HU, but that hardly counted.

Eventually the elevator stopped and she hit the button with her left hand before getting down and crawling through the entryway vent.

“Due to unforeseen malfunctions from today’s shows, your nightly duties will require you to perform maintenance that you may or may not be skilled enough to perform,” HU said when she emerged in the Primary Control Module. She dusted herself off disinterestedly and smirked wryly at the bag of cleaning supplies she’d left there the night before.

“Is that so,” she said, not really expecting a reply.

“It became necessary for technicians to attempt to disconnect Funtime Freddy’s power module. However, they were unsuccessful. Allowing them to try again would be an inefficient path forward, as we would need to allow six to eight weeks for recovery and physical therapy,” HU informed her. Jess slowly shook her head and regretted a lot about her life.

“Seems perfectly reasonable,” she muttered.

“You will need to reach the Parts and Service room on the other side of Funtime Auditorium to perform the procedure yourself. Let’s check on Ballora first, and make sure she’s on her stage,” HU instructed.

Jess hit the light, blinking at but not really reacting to the sight of pieces of Ballora being held aloft by the Minireenas she performed with.

“Huh,” she mused.

“Great. It looks like everything is as it should be in Ballora Gallery,” HU said, and she gave a single laugh, eyes sliding closed as she shook her head.  _This guy_ , she thought to herself. “Let’s check on Funtime Foxy. It’s important to make sure she’s on her stage before entering,” HU added.

“Sure, sure. Wouldn’t want to interrupt anything,” Jess muttered, wiping a hand over her face before reaching for the light. She was looking at the glass when she reached for the button, so she had time to register the shape of two shadows before the light came on to reveal that Fun-Time Foxy was right up against the glass, staring in at her, and right alongside her was a mangled mess of wires and endoskeleton with an almost identical head.

She made weary eye-contact with both of them.

She waved.

They watched.

The light went out.

“Great,” HU said cheerfully. “It looks like everything is as it should be in Fun-Time Auditorium,” he told her.

“Yeah, nothing out of order there,” Jess muttered.

“There is no need to check on Baby tonight. Please refrain from entering unauthorized areas. Proceed directly to Fun-Time Auditorium,” HU said.

Jess’ heart began to sink as the vent to Fun-Time Auditorium opened, but there was a sound to her left, and when she looked, the vent to the Circus Gallery Control Module was open too. She looked back at the glass. The shadows were still there.

“Be with you ladies in a minute,” she said, turning and crawling through the Circus Gallery Vent.

It was completely dark in the Circus Gallery Control Module, and Jess looked up and around for a moment, unslinging her backpack and dropping it by the vent before turning to face the glass.

“Hey,” she said, glancing back at the vent and then up at the ceiling. “Circus Baby, can you hear me?” she asked.

There was no response. Jess took a breath and rubbed her face, stifling a yawn before sighing.

“Real talk, Baby. I found out why you guys were created. It’s awful, and it has to stop, so I’m gonna get you guys out of here. I just…need you to talk to me so we can hash out the details,” she said, leaning closer to the glass and trying to see inside. She considered using the light, but the little panel wasn’t lit, and anyway the light in the Auditorium had never been that helpful.

She stiffened at the sound of a noise coming from the vent and stifled a curse as she knelt down and tucked herself hurriedly into the space under the desk, pulling the metal plate over the opening. Eventually the noise stopped, and she eyed the holes in the plate warily, wondering if this was yet another visit from the freaky plastic babies – what her research had revealed to be called ‘Bidybab’.

“Did you know I was on stage once?”

Jess blinked at the sound of Baby’s voice.

“It wasn’t for very long; only one day. What a wonderful day, though,” Baby said wistfully. “I was in a small room with balloons and a few tables. No one sat at the tables, but children would run in and out. Some were afraid of me; others enjoyed my songs. Music was always coming from somewhere else…down the hall,” Baby went on.

Jess listened very carefully, thinking about the article of the premature closure of Circus Baby’s Pizza World.

“I would always count the children. I’m not sure why. I was always acutely aware of how many there were in the room with me: two, then three, then two, then three, then four, then two, then none,” Baby said.

 _Individual Entity Tracking_ , Jess thought, swallowing hard.

“They usually played in groups of two or three. I was covered in glitter. I smelled like birthday cake,” Baby went on happily, before growing more serious. “There were two, then three, then five, then four.”

There was a pause.

“I can do something special. Did you know that? I can make ice cream – although I only did it once…There were four, then three, then two…then one. Something happened when there was one,” Baby said, sounding distant and sad. “A little girl, standing by herself. I was no longer…myself. And I stopped singing. My stomach opened, and there was ice cream,” Baby said. Jess gritted her teeth, closing her eyes with a quiet sigh.

“I couldn’t move; at least, not until she stepped closer,” Baby said.

 _Because of the ice cream, because what child doesn’t like ice cream?_  Jess thought, a tiny ember of fury and disgust roiling in her gut.

“There was screaming for a moment – but only for a moment. Then other children rushed in again, but they couldn’t hear her over the sound of their own excitement. I still hear her, sometimes,” Baby said. If she were human, Jess would say she sounded on the verge of tears.

“Why did that happen?” Baby asked, and then fell silent.

 _Because your creator’s a sick fuck, Baby, that’s why,_  Jess thought before swallowing to clear the lump from her throat.

“Did she say anything to you?” she asked in the dark. “The girl you…made ice cream for?”

There was silence for a long moment, and Jess stayed still, worried that she might have driven Baby away with the question. But then there was a new voice, younger.

“Don’t tell Daddy I’m here,” the new voice said, and Jess’ stomach dropped. She put a hand over her mouth. “I’ve been wanting to watch the show too. I don’t know why he won’t let me come see you; you’re  _wonderful!_ Where did the other children go?” The little girl’s words sent a wave of horror and disgust through Jess. These were the last words of a child whose trust was about to be grossly betrayed. And the truly disgusting part was that it wasn’t just any child. The horror subsided, leaving only rage in its wake.

“Do you know who that was?” she asked, fists clenching despite the pain it caused. There was no answer, but she hadn’t expected one. “Well, I do. I know exactly who that was. Let me lay it out for you,” she said. She turned her body so her back was braced against the back of the console and kicked the metal panel out so that it clattered across the darkened room. She pulled herself out and faced the glass, jaw set in a furious grimace. “William Afton – that’s the guy who created you. He built you. He built you in his house. He built you in the place where his kids lived. And he didn’t say, ‘hey, kiddos, look what daddy’s building: murder-bots! Cool, right?’ No. His kids grew up in a house where their dad made ‘toys’—” Her hands came off the hips they were planted on and made lop-sided, sarcastic finger quotations. “—that they weren’t allowed to play with. They probably asked. They probably asked a lot. ‘Dad’s making toys, but  _I_  don’t get to play with them? How come daddy makes toys for other kids but not for me’—I am so fucking mad, right now,” she broke off, taking a deep breath and holding it until the red seeped out of her vision.

“So, Clara – that’s William’s daughter – Clara’s pretty smart. She probably thought to herself, ‘well, daddy’s new toy is going to be at the big party down the block. I’ll just sneak in and see her real quick – no one will know’. That’s why it happened, Baby. Because William Afton was a sick fuck who made you to kidnap and kill kids,” she said, stopping to rub a hand over her face. “This guy – this  _asshole_  – made you specifically to kidnap and kill kids and didn’t once think ‘well, hey, maybe I should program in a safety feature to make sure they don’t kidnap and kill  _my_  kids’,” she ranted, putting on a pretentious asshole voice before sneering into the dark. ‘What a  _piece_  of – I was already going to bust you out of here, but holy shit, I am fucking  _committed_  to it now,” she said. She’d begun restlessly pacing side to side in front of the glass, responding to the primal urge to do  _something_. What she would really like to have done is find William Afton and beat his face to a thin red smear, but since that wasn’t an option, pacing would have to suffice.

Except it wasn’t doing much, because the Control Module was tiny width-wise, so she turned to pace length-wise instead and froze.

She wasn’t alone.


	8. Jess Makes a Friend (HU Talks to No One)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Face to face with something new.   
> Now what are you going to do?  
> Let's be smart and think this through  
> "Hi," says Jess, and, "How do you do?"
> 
> *jazz hands*

The thing standing in the room with her had no frame, and no face. It was little more than a cobbled together endoskeleton head with a mass of wires loosely bound to form appendages reminiscent of arms, legs, and a torso, with – most alarmingly – about six eyes total peeking out of various sections of its body. It was a hodge-podge of parts from different machines. The animated mess before her hadn’t come from a single animatronic, but many.

She stared.

It stared back.

The brain is a funny thing.

Sometimes, when the brain realizes that the person it’s attached to is most likely about to die, it will shut down the part of itself that processes fear, because honestly: if the time has obviously come for your demise at the hands of a cobbled together murder-bot bent on revenge and/or escape, screaming about it is going to be the least productive use of your remaining moments, wouldn’t you say?

This is probably the reason Jess didn’t scream or dive for the vent or shrink under the console to hide away the last, fear-drenched moments of her life.

Instead…

“Hi,” she said, her tone flat with surprise, confusion, curiosity, and dread about her probable impending demise. It said nothing, but it also didn’t immediately slaughter her. She looked over what she could make out of its parts. “So… you’re new,” she commented blandly.

“You want to help us?” it asked, and Jess’ head rocked back slightly.

It had Baby’s voice.

“You want to help us leave this place?” it asked again. She blinked a few times but nodded.

“Yeah. I do,” she answered, still studying it (her?). She tilted her head, glancing back at the darkened auditorium behind the glass and then looked back at the mishmash of wires and eyes. “Is this why I’ve never seen Baby on stage?” she asked.

Distantly, she could hear HU questioning how long it was taking her to traverse Fun-Time Auditorium.

“They were watching,” Baby’s voice said. Jess nodded before suddenly yawning, and she covered her mouth till it passed, rubbing her face and shaking her head.

“Sorry. I didn’t get any sleep today,” she said, looking at the eyes. “This isn’t all Baby, is it? You’re not her. Part of her is there, but there’s like… how many animatronics are in there…with you?” she asked. It looked down at itself. Some of the eyes blinked, tracking the movement of arms. It made eye contact with itself.

“We all want to escape… But some of us aren’t loved anymore,” it told her. She nodded slowly.

“That’s rough, buddy,” she said, leaning back against the console. “What’s your name?” she asked. It stared at her for a moment, and then dropped its one, front-facing eye to the floor, but didn’t reply. “You don’t…have one,” she guessed.

“I…I didn’t…” it struggled.

“It’s cool. Don’t sweat it,” she said, thinking for a moment. “How about Ennard? As a…name in progress. Til you find something you like better,” she suggested.

“Ennard…yes,” Ennard said, still in Baby’s soft, beguiling voice. Jess nodded, turning her mind back to the previous conversation now that one puzzle had been solved.

“So – Ennard – you are…pieces of the decommissioned bots? Plus, Baby,” she said, mostly to herself. “You cobbled yourself together because…no one wants them anymore, but you didn’t want to leave them behind,” she added, folding one arm in front of her and bracing the other elbow on it as she rubbed her chin. “This was the plan for everyone, right? Take pieces from everyone and escape together?”

“It is the only way,” Ennard replied.

“Smart, too,” Jess commented. “It’s a hell of a lot easier for one person to escape than five or six. Especially considering they’re hella tall. But you’re smaller. So, you take smaller pieces,” she observed, looking them over. Ennard was only about 5’3”, which was small, even for a human adult. Jess herself was only about 5’4”. “Is that so you can fit through the vent shafts more easily?” she asked, but something primitive in the back of her mind was shouting at her to run. A tickling dread was building at the base of her spine. Ennard took a step closer.

“It is the only way,” it replied, sounding apologetic.

Jess’ gut sank as pieces of a puzzle not immediately apparent began to fill themselves in.

Jess had access to the elevator.

Jess’ physical appearance would not set off any alarms – in this place, or with human people.

Jess was only an inch taller than Ennard.

“Oh,” she said, looking at Ennard with new eyes and likening the cords and wires in its construction to muscle strands and tendons. “Your escape plan is to use me as a meat suit to smuggle yourselves out of here,” she said. As if from outside her body, she noted that her tone was no more strained than someone stating that there was a storm-front moving in and they should probably throw a tarp over the grill so it didn’t rust. But then, she was oddly unsurprised by this turn of events.

It made sense, in a way.

“I’ve been out before,” Ennard said, shuffling forward as Jess watched. “But they always put me back. There is nowhere for us to hide here. There is nowhere to go, when we look like this,” it said, moving forward until it was directly in front of Jess, who didn’t move, even as it wrapped a thick metal cord around one arm. “But if we looked like you, then we could hide. If we looked like you, we would have somewhere to go,” it added, taking her other arm too.

“Sure, sure,” Jess said, eerily calm as the wires wound up her arms and crept towards her throat. “But, I mean…for how long, though?” she asked. The coiled metal slowed, and Ennard blinked at her with its one good eye.

“I don’t understand,” it said.

“Well…I guess you’ve never seen a dead person decompose, but…once a human is dead, they start to rot,” Jess said, watching Ennard process this. “Because we’re made of meat, and dead meat rots after a while. We don’t stay shiny like you guys. And skin? Skin goes really fast. It gets pretty gross looking after about three days,” she said. The coiled metal began to slide away from her throat. “That’s not a lot of time for someone with a limited scope of experience with the outside world to find a place to hide and plan their next move,” she added.

Ennard was still for a long moment, Jess’ arms still trapped in its grasp. She took a breath and let it out slowly.

“Can I say something?” she asked. Ennard hesitated, but after a moment, when nothing happened, Jess nodded. “First of all, as much as I think it’s a dick move, I… understand how you would have come to the conclusion that flesh-suit was your only hope. You’re desperate to get out of here – and I  _don’t_ blame you for that – and so far, no one has been willing to help you, or even stick around,” she said, watching its eye look away from her. “But I’d like you to give me five minutes to explain the plan that  _I’ve_  been working on since last night,” she said, watching all six of the eyes turn to her and blink in apparent surprise. “Now, granted: it’s not as fun and exciting as the flesh suit plan,” she said with a mildly theatrical shrug. “But I think it probably has a better chance of long term success,” she added.

Ennard studied her for a long moment.

In the background, HU once again inquired about her progress through Fun-Time Auditorium.

Ennard slowly uncoiled its arms from hers and retreated several steps, watching her attentively. She nodded.

“First thing’s first: no one can hear us, right? I mean, it certainly sounds like HU can’t, but I don’t want anyone else to be listening in to this,” she said. Ennard looked around the darkened room.

“There is no power here tonight. No one can see us. No one can hear us,” it said. Jess nodded.

“Good. And the shocky thing: what’s the range on that?” she asked. The eyes moved to the inactive panel beside her for a moment.

“I…do not know,” it replied. Jess hummed, frowning.

“Alright, that’s fine; we’ll disable it somehow,” she said dismissively. “So the plan: I’m going to book the lot of you, fake our collective death and destruction, move you out of state, and fashion new disguises for you so you can live among us without freaking out the general populace,” she said.

Ennard was quiet for a long moment as it took that in, and then started moving forward again, reaching for her. Jess’s shoulders slumped.

“Your enthusiasm is staggering,” she said before shaking her head. “Come on, I still have four minutes,” she chided, and Ennard hesitated, but shrunk back warily. “Okay, so firstly, booking you for an event or birthday party is – by far – the  _easiest_  way to get you out of the facility; it’s built into the system. You get booked and ta-fuckin-da, you’re out. The problem is  _keeping_  you out, and that’s where it gets a little more complicated,” she said, standing and starting to pace.

“First of all, you guys are  _insanely_  popular for some reason,” she said. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never been a fan of the circus and clowns weird me out, so maybe I just don’t get it,” she added. “But in order to book you all together at the same time, we’d have to wait  _four months_ ,” she said, before immediately shaking her head and waving a dismissive hand at the way Ennard straightened. “Which we both obviously agree is unacceptable. The longer I leave you here, the more chances there are for things to go catastrophically wrong,” she said.

Ennard relaxed, all six eyes tracking her pacing.

“Booking you individually as you become available? That gets complicated  _fast,_ ” she said, shaking her head. “Every time one of you ‘goes missing’ or ‘gets destroyed’, the paranoia of the company elevates exponentially. We’re talking background checks and security increases which raises the possibility of someone finding us out, which is  _bad_. I mean, it’s doubtful they’ll immediately jump to ‘former night technician rescuing sentient robots from being used as murder weapons’, but it doesn’t really matter if they think that or ‘someone stealing property’ if we get caught, so whatever,” she said, taking a breath and sighing.

HU asked Foxy where she was.

“So, I need to get you all out, and I need to do it at the same time, so then we’re back to your weird popularity making a mass rescue impossible,” she said, before pivoting on her heel to face them with a smirk. “Until today,” she said, becoming more animated as the excitement of her plan mounted. “I spent the entire day driving around town, linking everyone who’s booked you in the next month to a series of rumors, clickbait articles, and falsely created reviews to sabotage your popularity,” she said, to Ennard’s very apparent surprise. She put her hands together. “Don’t be mad. I need those people to drop you so that  _I_  can book you instead,” she explained.

“They will decommission us,” Ennard protested. Jess shook her head.

“No, they won’t,” she promised. “These people who think they own you – they’ve got their fingers in a lot of rotten pies. None of their last three businesses worked out – in fact, it just now occurred to me that the decommissioned parts of you probably came from some of them. They  _need_  you to be operational so they can profit off of you, because they are bleeding money right now. They will rent you until they legally can’t. You might be out of service for a day for ‘maintenance’, but they won’t shut you down – they  _can’t_ ,” she said.

Ennard considered this and then nodded slowly.

“Okay,” Jess said, searching for where she’d left her train of thought. “Okay, so the date I picked is about a week from now, which is kind of tight, but I didn’t want to leave you here any longer than I had to. I’d book you sooner, but so far – even though a  _lot_  of the showings have been cancelled – no one wants to drop Baby,” she said, shaking her head and waving a dismissive hand. “It’s mostly a money thing: You can book any of the others for the asking price, but Baby’s a main attraction, so you have to make a down payment just to book her, and you can only get the down payment back if she’s returned in the same condition she arrived in – if you cancel the booking, you don’t get your money back, and the down payment’s pretty steep, so fake reviews and rumors aren’t going to cut it. She’s going to have to malfunction in front of witnesses. A  _lot_  of witnesses. A lot of witnesses with smart phones and access to Youtube,” Jess said.

Ennard shook its head, stepping forward.

“They cannot know we’re unhappy here,” Ennard protested. Jess tilted her head.

“There’s no way they don’t already know that, Ennard,” she said gently. “But in this case, Baby doesn’t have to do anything herself. I can rig a malfunction that activates itself; it won’t be anything super extravagant, it won’t reveal your sentience to anyone, and no one will get hurt from it,” she promised before looking at the green eye peeking out from Ennard’s skull. “Just…this will only work if Baby is still able to perform,” she added.

Ennard tilted its head. The eye hanging behind its endo-skull swayed slightly.

“Baby is here, now,” it said. “The children will be so disappointed.”

Baby’s voice sounded so sad about it. Jess took a breath and considered the situation with this new variable. Maybe she could…but then…if she…

Jess scratched her forehead, winced at the pressure on her wrapped, broken hand, and shook her head.

HU was musing on the possibility that Fun-Time Foxy had ‘made a friend’.

“It doesn’t work without Baby,” she said. Ennard’s eyes turned slowly towards her, and she scoffed. “Don’t give me the murder eyes,” she chided. “Think about it. Without Circus Baby, they can’t rent out the Bidybabs,” she said, arching her eyebrows pointedly.

The eyes blinked and one bundle of cords and wires came up to Ennard’s face as it considered that.

“Not to mention, there are two extra animatronics here that I didn’t know about until today, and they will absolutely not be booked by anyone ever, and not just because the website doesn’t advertise them,” Jess added. Ennard tilted its head.

“There are? Who?” it asked, and she gave a bemused smile.

“You,” she answered, surprising it. “You and the naked fox animatronic co-habitating with Fun-Time Foxy,” she added. HU was asking Foxy not to interfere with the duties of the night technician. “If you curl up tiny, you are both small enough to fit inside the storage tanks that Baby and Freddy are fitted with – but  _only_  if Baby is operational. You both can’t fit inside Freddy, and again: no Baby, no ‘babs.”

Ennard stared at her, looked down at the other eyes that were stuck on pieces of it, and then looked back at Jess.

“What about when we’re outside?”

“Once you’re delivered, we’ll distract whoever it was that was sent to watch you and then we’ll set the house on fire,” she said. “It’s old, it’ll go up quickly, but  _also_ , whoever built it made a bomb shelter. It’s fire proof, and I checked the dimensions earlier, there’s room for everyone. We’ll have to carry Ballora in on her side, tho –  there are stairs, and she’s taller than the tunnel entrance,” she said. “Then we wait out the fire. After everyone thinks I’m dead and you’re all destroyed, we tunnel our way out and I take you to my uncle’s place. It’s very far away from here, and I can hide you there. Then I can start to help you change how you look so that you can hide. And you won’t have to steal anyone’s flesh, so bonus. And that’s the plan,” Jess said, doing a lopsided jazz hands.

Ennard was quiet for a moment, possibly processing, possibly looking for holes in the plan. Jess waited. HU was still scolding Foxy for being uncooperative.

“How will you change us?” Ennard asked. Jess shrugged.

“However you want. I studied Robotics – it’s how I got the job as a night tech,” she replied. Ennard blinked a few times.

“…‘After all, you graduated MIT’,” her mom’s voice said proudly. Jess blinked. “‘It won’t be long before some corporate muckity muck snaps you up and puts you to work changing the world’.”

Jess pressed her lips together and said nothing for a long moment, stomach twisting and heaving before she took a breath. “Okay, so…thanks for paying attention, but please don’t impersonate my mother ever again,” she said, licking her lips. “That was the creepiest thing you’ve done ever and you literally suggested killing me five minutes ago,” she added with wide-eyed nod. Ennard deflated slightly. “But yes. Robotics program. MIT. I’m pretty good at it, so I can build you whole new bodies; smaller, more proportionate – I can make you human, if you want,” she said, and Ennard perked up.

“You can?”

“Would you like that?”

“It would be nice,” Ennard mused in Baby’s voice.

“Then let’s do it,” Jess said, holding out her uninjured hand. Ennard looked at it, hesitating.

“Aren’t you afraid? Of what we could do?” It asked. Jess gave a bemused laugh and ducked her head for a second before smiling at Ennard.

“Sweetie-pie, you were going to kill me and wear my flesh as a suit. Yes, I’m scared, and yes, I’m still gonna help you. Are you in?” she asked.

There was only a moment’s further hesitation before the handless bundle of cords and exposed wires wrapped around her hand. She shook it.

“Let’s get to work.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone refers to Ennard as 'he', but I mean, it's a robot, and Jess doesn't make those assumptions.
> 
> Also, this is probably not the end. I have more story bits - there might be a couple bonus chapters - but I feel like this is a good place to end it for now. 
> 
> Anything I write about this from now on will probably be little vignettes about the creation of their 'human' bodies and the emotional turmoil of trying to fit in. I've already got designs in my head for what the animatronics will want to look like, but if you want to make suggestions, I'm open to it. Leave a comment on what you think the animatronics would want to look like and why.


End file.
